Peter Boghossian is one of my heroes. The brilliant philosopher, whose teaching and scholarship range far beyond ivory towers and woke factories, tendered his resignation from Portland State University. His letter may be read in full on Bari Weiss's substack, Common Sense. Over the last few years, I have enjoyed watching him combat what I first thought of as the excesses of academe--the pomposity, the jargon, the language circling gracefully around some obscure point but rarely with clarity.
That language has taken a more sinister turn, becoming a series of ideologies, especially about race and gender, that are harmful, especially in the form of critical race theory as it currently appears in many American classrooms--from kindergartens to doctoral programs. Boghossian is hardly the first to resign, but he's one of the most prominent. American education, especially in the most expensive private schools and universities, is in a crisis at a time when the country needs to train future leaders the most. I hope Bogossian's statement will be taken seriously by other institutions. I hope that freedom of speech and a commitment to teaching how--rather than what-- to think will return.
Here is Bogossian in 2018 with James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose during a moment of triumph, when the three exposed the intellectual bankruptcy of several prominent academic journals:
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